RoboHelp 8 closes while compiling

[JacquiL]

Hi - i have recently upgraded to RoboHelp 8. I have successfuly compiled both .chm and .html projects since then. Today i opened a project (on my local PC) with a default setting of Web Help and compiled and published the files. I then tried, through Single Source, to compile in .chm format and it closed RoboHelp in the second half of the compilation (thus i cannot see errors). I restarted the PC and the same happened. I took an older version of the help file, made the updates and tried to directly compile to .chm and the same happened.

Please help me locate the problem.

[Peter Grainge]

Try with one of the supplied sample projects.

You will find the samples at

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe RoboHelp 8\RoboHTML\Samples\en_US

or

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Technical Communication Suite 2\Adobe RoboHelp 8\RoboHTML\Samples\en_US

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[JacquiL]

Hi Peter, The compilation worked fine using the CCC project. What else can you recommend?

Thanks,

Jacqui

[Peter Grainge]

That established it is not the compiler but the project.

First create a new layout, not a duplicate. See if that works.

If not, then conditionalise half the topics. If that builds you know the problem is in the half you excluded. Continue the logic until you track it down.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge

[JacquiL]

OK - that will take a while. I'll let you know tomorrow how it went

🙂

Thanks, Jacqui

[JacquiL]

Thank You Peter! Now for details.

1. i created a new layout, but it still stopped;

2. I removed whole sections and then slowely intorduced them back until i narrowed it down to one topic.

The problem was in the Related Topics button. I rarely use this nowadays, but it still occurs in earlier helps. The topics copied across with many ampersands - so i removed them.

The weird bit is that i had previously compiled the help in HTML after upgrading to RoboHelp 8 and had no problem, and a few minutes earlier the WebHelp compilation worked.

[Peter Grainge]

The elves at play again!

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

@petergrainge